


Vested Interest

by mikadosannoji



Series: DRA/SDRA2 Non-Despair Highschool AU [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Danganronpa Another 2 - Fandom
Genre: Almost every character is mentioned, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Shinji isn't here until chapter 2, Slow Burn, Void Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:22:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22507756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikadosannoji/pseuds/mikadosannoji
Summary: Eager to finish next week's school paper, Nikei heads to his Ultimate Journalist Lab first thing in the morning... to find it completely trashed and his hard work destroyed.Who could be responsible for this? Will he be able to catch the culprit before the day ends and he has to submit his draft for publishing?(I think its worth noting that my understanding of how highschool journalism works is severely lacking)
Relationships: Nikei Yomiuri/Shinji Kasai
Series: DRA/SDRA2 Non-Despair Highschool AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619401
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	Vested Interest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nikeiyomiuri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikeiyomiuri/gifts).



> Hello! This the first story I'm going to post here; it's a gift for a friend of mine. Initially, this wasn't supposed to be a multi-chaptered fic, but I guess I got carried away... My fixation on Sannoji totally isn't obvious.
> 
> Beta'd by my friend teru and the receipient <3

As soon as he pushed the doors to his ultimate lab open and lay his eyes on the shit show waiting for him inside, Nikei considered just closing the doors and going home. Chairs and printers were overturned, papers from articles presumably both past and present were strewn about, and worst of all - his desk was completely drenched in ink. He was almost too afraid to go investigate the state of next week’s work-in-progress school paper, but he was pretty sure he could conclude it was unsalvageable from the clump of black that currently sat atop his writing desk. Better yet, seeing such a horribly infuriating sight made him instinctively clench the paper coffee cup in his left hand and cause its hot, but thankfully _not_ boiling, contents to spill over his left hand and drench the sleeve of his dress shirt. This sucked. Nikei’s life _sucked._ His work was ruined, his uniform was ruined, and he came to school early on a _Friday morning_ for this shit. It was way too early for this.  
  


Retrospectively, he probably should’ve deduced that today would be horrible from the moment he woke up. He burnt his _right_ hand while making his morning coffee, for gods’ sake, but considering it didn’t really hinder his writing ability as much as it made his hand a pain in the ass to write with, he kind of hoped it wouldn’t mean anything. He had a school paper to write, after all. Sure, he’d been kinda lax with meeting his deadline (which was _tonight_ ) because even when he didn’t have much content to work with he could always pad an article and finish the school paper before Friday night every week, just in time for printing and distribution on monday. If this made him break his dependability streak, he probably wouldn’t be able to stop himself from murdering whoever was responsible for trashing his workspace. Hope’s Peak was a school of _the best,_ and currently Nikei was _at the top_ in terms of journalism and he would rather die than give that spot up.   
  


Nikei sighed, cursed under his breath, and promptly deposited the remnants of his morning coffee in the trashcan at the entrance to his ultimate lab before he turned on his heel and beelined for the cafeteria, the place that the obvious culprit usually resided in the morning.  
  


The halls were almost devoid of students this early - considering it was a quarter to six, that was no surprise - but Nikei was almost a hundred percent certain that the asshole he was looking for would be there. If Nikei didn’t see him leaving through the window of his Ultimate Lab whenever he would stay back to work on an article, he would be _certain_ that the guy _lived_ at the school. No matter how early you arrived, he’d be there. No matter if the gates had only _just_ opened and you’d been the only one _waiting_ for them to open, he’d be there. Nikei was almost grateful that he didn’t have time to eat breakfast if it meant not having to be subjected to his banter every morning.  
  


He speed walked through the open cafeteria doors before stopping in his tracks. Scouring the tables, there was not a single head of blonde hair to be seen. Just the fluffy, carrot-coloured orange of one Yuki Maeda. That was odd. The poor kid detested the feeling of inferiority that being the Ultimate Lucky Student left him with, so it wasn’t that surprising to see him arrive early in the morning in his attempts to prove his worth, but it _was_ odd seeing him _this_ early. Quizzically, he made his way towards Maeda.  
  


Nikei ducked his head to the right of the other boy, who was resting his chin on his hand and seemed to be staring intensely at something on the table’s surface with a frown. “Uh, Maeda…?” 

Promptly and oh-so-majestically, the orange-haired boy jumped and smacked his shoulder straight into Nikei’s face, causing him to stumble backwards. He could hear Maeda belatedly tumble out of his seat whilst he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. 

“O-oh God, Yomiuri, I’m so sorry, I’m so so sorry,” Nikei could feel Maeda place a hand on his side to help steady him, “I’m really, really tired- I didn’t see you. Are you okay? Do you need any help?” 

“I’m fine, it’s fine, don’t worry.” Nikei could feel a headache coming on by the time Maeda finished apologising, “Just - I was just wondering why you were here so early in the morning.”

Maeda still looked concerned, but his grimace faded once Nikei straightened up and recomposed himself. He waited for the other boy to finish giving the bridge of his nose one more rub before he seemed to process the question and smiled bashfully. “Oh! I, uh, got assigned a project. I’m here to work on it with my partner, since me and Big bro will be training all weekend.”  
  


Nikei took a moment to process what Maeda was telling him, before realisation hit. “Wait, but if you’re here _this_ early, doesn’t that mean--”  
  


Suddenly, there was a clang of metal cafeteria doors slamming against a wall - which was odd, because Nikei didn’t remember closing them, and they were _definitely open_ when he came in - as an all too familiar and gratingly chipper voice called out. “Maeda-kun~~! I brought-- Oh, what’s this? A guest?! You didn’t tell me Yomiuri-kun was going to be here!”  
  


Painfully, begrudgingly, Nikei shifted his gaze from the bashful expression on Maeda’s face as the shorter boy raised a hand to scratch at the back of his head and turned to face the student council president. Half of the blonde’s expression was deadpan on the side of his face that wasn’t obscured by a stupid looking porcelain mask, whilst the other half displayed what could only be addressed as unfiltered glee. He held two large McDonald's bags in both of his hands, raised to the ceiling in his eager arrival. 

Nikei couldn’t hold back his instinctive glare as Sannoji practically _skipped_ towards the two other students in the room, stopping directly in front of Nikei so that he could _beam_ at him as he spoke. “It must be your lucky day, huh, Yomiuri-kun? I happened to _accidentally_ order extra! Won’t you take a seat and eat with us? I’m sure Maeda-kun wouldn’t mind!”  
  


If Nikei didn’t have that headache before, he definitely had it now. But he needed to talk to Mikado, and he didn’t really _do_ breakfast. Sure, Makunoichi would chastise him for eating _junk food_ for ‘the most important meal of the day’, but that was better than nothing, right? If he rejected Sannoji’s offer, he probably wouldn’t let him ask him anything anyways. “...Ok, fine, I’ll eat with you, but only if you promise to answer a couple of questions.”   
  


“Oh, questions? Is this another one of your interviews?” Sannoji’s expression shifted to one of endearing curiosity as he tilted his head to the side like a dog, but it only fuelled Nikei’s rage. Nothing made him more spiteful than Sannoji _pretending_ he didn’t know anything when he _knew_ he did.  
  


But instead of growling at the other boy like every nerve in his brain was screaming at him to do, he just spoke through gritted teeth as he flipped open the notepad he always carried around tucked into his sweater vest. “Yeah. You could call it an interview.”   
  


“How exciting!” He beamed again, before carefully handing Maeda one of the bags and taking a seat across from where the other boy had been sitting prior. Maeda took his place where he was earlier, and Nikei slipped in beside him.   
  


As Sannoji began pulling food out of the bag in his hands and delicately placing it on the table between the three of them, he turned towards Nikei with a smile. Well, half of a smile. “So, what did you want to ask me this time?”  
  


Nikei wasn’t here to fuck around. Even if he was hungry. “What did you do to my Lab?”   
  


“Huh?” Sannoji’s mask formed a perfect ‘o’, and he looked at him like he genuinely had no idea what he was talking about. Obviously, Nikei knew he was probably faking his surprise to mess with him. Because that’s what Sannoji did.  
  


“Wait, what happened to your Lab?” The sudden sound of Maeda’s voice shocked Nikei so much that _he_ was the one to jump this time. The boy beside him could probably see him shift, because he passed Nikei an iced coffee with an apologetic smile right afterwards. He gave a curt nod as thanks.  
  


“Well, I came to school early to finish next week’s article, which I keep in my Ultimate Lab obviously,” Nikei took a sip from his drink, and gauged Mikado’s expression - which still hadn’t changed from one of surprise. “But when I got there this morning, everything was trashed, and the entire paper had been soaked through with ink. I probably have to start over.”  
  
Maeda and Sannoji just stared at him in profound shock, before turning to each other, and then back towards him. Maeda spoke up first. “Who would do that…!?”   
  


“I don’t know,” Nikei clenched his right hand around his pen and pressed hard onto his notepad as he glared up at the blonde-haired boy across from him, “But I have _some_ suspicions.”  
  


Sannoji looked taken aback, and then pointed at himself. Nikei gave a concise nod. And then tears started pouring almost comically from the circular red ‘eye’ on his mask. “Ah, you’d really accuse me of doing something so terrible…!? Do you really think so lowly of me!?”  
  


Nikei couldn’t keep his calm anymore; this conversation was pushing him to his limit and his patience was already drawing thin. He wanted to sort this out as soon as possible so he could finish his paper without the risk of someone ruining it again. “Yeah, as a matter of fact - you’re the only person I could think of that would do this.”   
  


Sannoji lifted his hands in defense. “No, I swear I don’t have anything to do with what happened to your Lab! I promise, really! I would never do anything to jeopardise the happiness of my friends!”   
  


“Is there really nobody else that would do this?” Maeda cut in.

“Not that I can think of. That’s why it’s got to be him!” Nikei dramaticized this by pointing towards the boy across from him with his pen and shooting up out of his seat. “He’s the only person that’d ever do something so stupid and pointless to get to me!” 

“Are you...sure?”

His brows furrowed further as he looked down towards the still-seated Maeda. “Huh?”

“Well… It’s not like I _don’t_ think Sannoji would do something like this-” The boy in question whined in protest at that, “But, well… The student paper is kind of a big school thing, right? And you’re the only one on the team, so…”   
  


“...So?”  
  


“Why would _The_ Student Council President mess up the work of the only person responsible for the entire Hope’s Peak school paper? You know, the guy in _charge_ of making sure everything in the student body is going well?”

Nikei blanched at that. Maeda had a point. Sannoji _was_ the one that deigned to make sure the paper was a one-man project. Nikei hated working with others - and _especially_ giving credit to other people for work that _he_ was wholly responsible for, so it must have taken a lot of convincing to get the headmaster to allow it. Making Nikei screw up his job would probably make him look bad, too. Maybe he was being a little brash and emotional with his accusations. It didn’t mean he’d apologise to him, though.  
  


Nikei slid back into his seat, solemnly taking one of the hash browns from the pile of food Sannoji must have finished emptying out of the bag whilst he was talking to Maeda. “Okay, that probably makes a lot of sense. But who else would ruin my work? I can’t think of anyone that _actually_ hates me _that_ much.”  
  


Maeda hummed in thought. “What about Hibiki? She likes pulling pranks.”   
  


“This is a bit unnecessarily malicious for a prank, don’t you think? Plus, Chiebukuro would’ve gotten mad at her if she did that, and Hibiki hates being yelled at.”  
  


“Hm, what about somebody you’ve written a negative article about in the past?” Nikei looked up from the food in his hands to Sannoji, who no longer showed any evidence that he’d had been crying at all. Even his voice was more composed. “Or, perhaps, someone who knew they were going to have a negative article published about them in next week's paper?”  
  


“That’s… actually not a bad place to start.” Maeda smiled nervously. “But then again, I don’t really remember anything bad happening recently that you could write about…”  
  


Nikei took a bite out of his hash brown and began to flick through his notepad for a summary of the events from the last week. He had a pretty good memory, sure, but it would probably be better to skim through his observations opposed to recalling events off the top of his head. Nikei made sure to record _every_ slight variance from regular student behaviour. He always had to be ready for a new scoop to pursue, after all.  
  


Let’s see… Kagarin getting slapped by Kabuya, the Otonokoji twins’ planned performance for next week, Mitsume skipping class, an exercise competition between Kasai and Makunoichi that left them chasing each other around the school long into the night, Mekaru throwing a whole lot of Ootori’s rainbow laundry into the incinerator, Hashimoto trying to mug another student… Really, there was no one here that would ruin Nikei’s work because he wrote about them. Maybe Hashimoto would, if he actually cared about this stuff. But even then he’d probably just approach Nikei in a dark alley after school and stab him a couple of times instead of going out of his way to ruin the article. 

“Nah, I don’t think any of these topics were worth ruining a week’s worth of work for.” 

Maeda frowned, while apparently Sannoji stopped listening as soon as Nikei opened his notepad and was currently eating a sundae. At six in the morning. “So, no leads at all then?”

“Well, even if I don’t think any of these people would do something so drastic… It’s always worth a try! I’m not going to get anywhere just sitting around. I have a new scoop to investigate!”   
  


Maeda grinned as Nikei beamed in journalistic enthusiasm. “Well, after we eat, why don’t we head up to the headmaster and ask if we can skip our morning classes today to investigate when everyone’s at school? I’m sure he’ll be okay with it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me what you think - especially about the characterisation! (It's important to me to get it right, but it's hard since the source work is in another language.)


End file.
